If you think you’ve heard every reason to get a wi-fi-equipped laptop, here’s a new one: live broadband Internet access on airplanes. This April, Lufthansa will begin to offer the wireless broadband service Connexion by Boeing on certain transatlantic flights. Other airlines are quickly moving to provide similar features. Both Scandinavian Airlines System and Japan Airlines will have in-flight broadband by the end of the year.
With Connexion, the whole plane becomes a wi-fi “hot spot,” linking users to the Internet via a network of satellites — without getting in the way of the airplane’s communications and navigation equipment. Users should be able to surf the Web, download attachments and upload pictures at speeds comparable to cable-broadband service. The cost will range from a flat $30, for journeys around the globe, down to $10 for flights across continents. From the Feb. 16, 2004 issue of TIME magazine

A number of online sites have linked to a New York Times story about what is being reported as a ground-breaking change in the way computers will process information. What, exactly, the impact of those changes will be in our day-to-day lives remains unclear to me, as of this writing.
But scientists certainly seem excited about the prospects for a “bold new vision of the digital future”.
C|NET offers another perspective on this important breaking story, as do the folks at the online computer journal The EE Times. Reuters’ ace tech reporter Daniel Sorid writes about the potential blurring of the worlds of computing and communication in his story, available here.

C|NET Hardware: By the end of the 2004, Intel should be positioned to release a blazingly fast 4GHz computer chip, the so-called Prescott CPU, with 1MB of of L2 cache and better HyperThreading.
What does this mean to you?
Well, if you’re an “early adopter” you’d better start planning now to purchase that soon-to-be state-of-the-art Prescott chip, sure to sell in the $600 – $700 range come December. On the other hand, if you’re like the rest of us, come Christmas 2004 that much-lusted after Pentium 4 3.2 chip — currently selling for $454 on NCIX.com — the one you wanted to buy at Christmas but couldn’t afford, oughta be down in price to under $200.
If you’re one of the fortunate computer users who own a custom-built system — one with an upgradeable ASUS or Intel motherboard that allows for easy chip replacement — by replacing your current CPU with the ultrafast 3.2 chip you’ll enter a new realm of computing ease, on the cheap.
Something to look forward to, don’t you think?

Although VanRamblings.com recommends the free, effective and safe anti-spyware programmes Spybot: Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware, there are alternatives to these programmes out there.
The good folks at Download.com recommend any one of these anti-spyware programmes. Be careful, though.
Some of those who have used Webroot Software’s popular anti-spyware programme Spy Sweeper 2.2 (the most popular title presented on Download.com’s list) have published negative reviews of this programme. This site’s trial use of the programme was also far from positive.
As a rule of thumb when it comes to installing new programmes, it is best to be cautious. Do a Google review search to find out as much as possible about the programme you intend to download, and ask your computer techie friends / IT support person about their experience with the programme before downloading and installing any new programme.